On May 19, Xinhua News Agency issued a telegram: "China's price reform is a bold move that requires a certain amount of risk, but the central government is confident that it will be handled well......"

The introduction of this price adjustment policy quickly spread throughout the country.

In fact, as early as March this year, the price break action began from the largest industrial city of Magic City, that month, the magic capital adjusted the retail prices of 280 types of goods, most of these goods belong to small commodities or daily necessities, the price increase is between 20% ~ 30%. A month later, the State Council launched a plan to "appropriately subsidize workers for changes in the retail prices of major non-staple foods".

Since May, the price of pork and other meats in central cities across the country has risen by about 70 percent, and other small commodities have quickly followed.

The "price rush" soon showed a terrible trend of getting out of control in an all-round way, and prices in various places were like wild horses that had escaped from the leash, scattering their hooves and scurrying around...... This was beyond the expectations of many people, but this qiē was expected by Meng Songhai, who was reborn in the tenth life.

At this time, the national residents' deposits were 300 billion yuan, in the eyes of later generations, this is not a very big number, and in more than 20 years, the total deposits of many prefecture-level cities will exceed this number, but due to the public's bullish panic psychology, it has caused a nationwide rush to buy, which seems to respond to Keynes's famous saying, "social psychology determines the permanent economic problems of human beings."

A newspaper reported: "People are like dizzy, they buy things when they see them, they rush to buy both value-preserving goods and basic consumer goods, even unsalable ones, whether they need them or not, and they don't care about the quality. ”

In the face of rising prices, people are responding in the opposite way of what they are doing now: buying in a panic.

In Beijing, Modu, Spring City and other cities, two or three hours after the store opened, the famous cigarettes and liquor that were originally planned to be sold for a day were swept away; In the middle of summer, there is a long queue in front of the sweater and pants counter in Hangzhou; Kunming with all four seasons like spring. Electric fans, which are often unsalable, become hot; Someone in the three towns bought back 200 kilograms of salt, some citizens in Jinling bought 500 boxes of matches, and a lady in Yangcheng carried back 10 boxes of laundry detergent......

In the first half of 1988, the prices of meat, eggs, vegetables, and sugar were just liberalized, and at the end of July. The prices of famous tobacco and liquor have also been liberalized, and the prices of famous tobacco and liquor have risen by 5 to 10 times at once, and the price increase is already in double digits.

Back in April. Under his advice, Jingdong Electric and IKEA signed a purchase agreement with the supplier, and in the case of paying part of the payment, the supplier will transport the goods to the warehouse that the two companies have already rented, and let the supplier send a sales representative to assist in sales and do all kinds of supervision work, the purpose of which is to make the supplier believe. As long as they can sell the goods they provide, they can get back the payment, and if they can't sell them, the goods will not disappear.

With the opening of the prices of various commodities, the prices have broken through the barrier, and the people have rushed to buy, and the products that have been too much to demand have also been snapped up.

Taking electric fans as an example, there are more than 200 electric fan factories in the country at this time. With an annual output of 34 million units, it has become the world's largest producer. Two years ago, there was a situation of oversupply in the production and sales of fans in China, and the backlog of electric fans was very strict. But in the rush to buy, all the fans in the domestic warehouse were snatched up.

The products sold by Jingdong Electric and IKEA have not increased because of the price barrier, because the sales have skyrocketed, which not only made the two companies profitable, but also made a reputation, after the year after that. There are also many people in Beijing who remember buying affordable goods at JD Electric and IKEA when prices were broken, and many of these people later became loyal customers of these two companies.

In addition to the two companies Jingdong Electric and IKEA making profits in this price break, Meng Dongyao took out all the bank deposits before the price of tobacco and alcohol rose sharply under Meng Songhai, and with the help of his son-in-law Jiang Weiguo, he used all the money in his hand to buy Moutai, bought it at a price of 20 yuan per bottle, and finally sold it at an average price of 100 yuan, obtaining an astonishing four-fold profit.

Before Meng Dongyao sold Moutai, he made a phone call to tell Meng Songhai about it, and Meng Songhai was very happy to learn that there was a fourfold profit, and he also approved of his father's sale.

Meng Songhai knew that in another 20 years, in 1987, a pound of Moutai would be produced, and at the auction, a bottle could be sold for tens of thousands of yuan, but he felt that there was no need to collect Moutai for a long time for investment, but he advised his father not to sell them all out, and to leave a few boxes at home to entertain guests.

Including Meng Songhai, few people could have predicted that in this price break, the price of a pound of Moutai wine would jump from 20 yuan to more than 300 yuan in a plum bottle.

Although Meng Dongyao made a lot of money by selling Moutai early, he did not regret it at all, he felt that he had made enough money.

After the price of Moutai rose sharply, the price of many other famous cigarettes and liquor also skyrocketed, Fenjiu rose from 8 yuan to 40 yuan, Gujing Gongjiu rose from 12 yuan to 70 yuan, and Chinese cigarettes rose from 1.8 yuan per pack to about 10 yuan......

Many years later, Meng Anli and Meng Songhai talked about her father's investment in Moutai, and she joked that Meng Songhai was too partial, and she knew that the price of Moutai would rise sharply, so why didn't she sue her and let her make some money. Meng Songhai bluntly said that he is not a god, he can't pinch and can't count, he just thinks that the price of high-end goods will rise, and the reason why he chose Moutai is because he feels that Moutai does not have a shelf life like ordinary goods, and the longer the liquor is stored, the more fragrant the liquor will be.

Meng Songhai's family just thinks he has a good vision, but they don't think he has the ability to predict the future, if he really has this ability, then the creation of Jingdong Electric, IKEA and Taiping Logistics can be postponed for ten months, and all the funds used to create these companies are used to buy Moutai, buy at a price of 20 yuan per bottle, sell at a price of more than 300 yuan, you can get more than 15 times the profit.

Later, the "price rush" was considered to be the biggest economic runaway since the 1978 reform, and it was declared a failure in October, and the central government began to adjust its policy, once again putting forward the principle of "macroeconomic regulation and control, and rectification of governance."

Although the impact of this defeat on the macro economy was negative, it did not lead to a collapse of production, but it was a serious defeat to the enthusiasm of the people throughout the country for reform, and the people whose interests were damaged by inflation hated the "official/downfall" who made a windfall under the "dual-track price system", and thus gave the impression that "the reform caused social injustice". (To be continued.) )